Tech, Autos, & Gear in Layman's Terms Since 2006

How to Do It Yourself!Category

Most of us are familiar with the panic that comes with seeing our cell phones hurtling toward the ground and potential ruin. Your cell phone dropping or falling is even scarier when you don’t have the right case. Once your phone hits a hard surface, cracks, shattering, and other kinds of damage are likely.

When I purchased my Dell XPS 13 9350 a couple of months ago, I expected to be able to charge devices off the USB port while it was powered down. It’s a feature I’ve become accustomed to with Macs over the years, and I’ve been using it increasingly as I travel overseas where hotel rooms …

Like many, I eagerly updated to iOS 9.0 when it became publicly available. My iPad Air 2 updated with no issues, but my iPhone 6 Plus developed two major problems: the battery would drain to 55% or worse within an hour or so, and my iPhone was hot all the time — not just when …

As I mentioned previously in this series on Car Audio, I test a lot of premium factory car stereo systems, and while I am impressed with the quality they achieve I have found they still cannot stand up to the sound quality of aftermarket components installed properly. If you are ready to upgrade that factory …

It may seem a bit macabre to imagine what will happen with regard to your Google account access when you die, but honestly, wouldn’t you rather make the decision about who gets access or what happens to your data while you are still completely in charge of your facilities? Yeah, I thought so. Here’s how to set …

There’s quite a few hams I talk to every day that use D-star and a Raspberry Pi computer to use D-star even in places where there are no repeaters. The Pi is IDEAL for this as it has low power requirements and is small. This is just one of many uses hams have come up …

Siri (or Cortana, or Ok Google) often get dismissed as gimmicks, or something you use for driving or otherwise using your phone hands free. My wife Sarah, however, can attest to a situation where Siri was an absolute hero for our family — Sarah used Siri to call Poison Control during an emergency!

One of the more popular Cydia music Tweaks has to be CustomCover. Originally a concept on DeviantArt that was turned into tweak (which has stopped receiving updates) named Snowcover for iOS 6, a developer named Chewitt brought it to life for iOS 7, and now, iOS 8. What CustomCover allows you to do is customize your Lockscreen …

As an iPhone holder since the iPhone 4S, I’ve always wanted one thing from my Apple device, freedom. Coming from an HTC Thunderbolt, which at the time was innovative (unlimited data? Who does THIS anymore!?), which at the time I had rooted courtesy of the Cyanogen jailbreak.

Google’s popular multi-player online game Ingress was finally released this weekend for iOS. The game began as a beta on November 15, 2012, and until now it had been limited to Android smartphones. Ingress is basically an electronic game of capture the flag (aka portals) between two sides (aka factions) – Enlightened (green) and Resistance (blue).

If you want to bring your pictures and videos to life, but you don’t want to got to school to learn how to create a presentation that doesn’t look like a five year old did it, then you’ll want to check out FotoMagico 4. At $99 the application is pricey, but the ease-of-use and output …

I do a great deal of my blogging for Gear Diary on my iPad. It’s partly a convenience thing, as I can work on posts from wherever I am, and it’s partly that I have my system down so well with iOS that anything else just throws a wrench in my workflow.

This morning I opened my Mac for the first time in … a while, since I mostly use my iPad. I had a series of birthday and holiday alerts I needed to dismiss before moving on. A bit later Dan asked how to get notifications in Mavericks to automatically go away. So I took a look, …

I have a Surface RT, and I recently snapped up a Touch Cover for it when I saw a great deal. It arrived last night, and I was all excited… except that it didn’t work. Well, mouse and volume were responsive but nothing else. I was all set to do a return, until a post …

I’d recently written that if Apple upgraded their iPad mini with retina and 128GB, I’d be buying one, so when the announcement came that my hoped for upgrades were imminent, I had a decision to make: what would become of my “old” iPad mini? Thanks to eBay’s new Simple Flow listing interface, it will soon …

The WiFi signal in our bedroom has been terrible ever since we moved into our new home. Due to where the Verizon FIOS service enters the house, the wireless router is on the opposite side of the house, and I’ve tried many WiFi extenders to no avail. Finally, my brother-in-law recommended the Windsurfer parabolic WiFi …

Installing a new operating system to your iPhone or iPad almost feels like getting a new phone. It looks completely different and has a bunch of cool new features. An upgraded operating system can breathe life into an older phone. iOS 7 is treating me very well so far, but there are a few things …

When iOS 7 ships next month, it will include quick access to key controls, search and information. You’ll be able to swipe up to Access Control Center, and swipe down from the top to access the Notification Center. But if you place a finger anywhere on the Home Screen and pull down, you’ll start a …

Although there has been no official announcement, Apple will likely release iOS 7, the next generation of their mobile operating system, next month. It is the biggest overhaul to the OS since its introduction, and while visual differences will draw most of the attention the changes that are less apparent are the ones people will …

Pebble has been in the news the past few days since they have signed a deal to be sold in Best Buy retail stores. The once almost impossible to obtain smart watch will be available to everyone. Early reviews of the product were mixed at best. I think people were underwhelmed by the functionality of …

Carly was having huge battery issues with her iPhone 4S. It would run down in a matter of hours and, as a result, it was pretty much useless. That’s when she went out and picked up her Nokia Lumia 928. (Read her first impressions.) I asked Carly what she planned to do with the almost-non-functional …